This new definition is: "Educational technology is the theory and practice about the design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of learning process and learning resources".
From this definition, we can see that the research fields of educational technology should include the theory and practice of learning process and the design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of learning resources. The specific research contents of each field are shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. Educational technology research field
The design of learning process and learning resources means that in order to achieve a given teaching goal, we must first analyze the characteristics of learners and formulate teaching strategies (teaching strategies include teaching activity procedures and teaching methods, etc.). ). On this basis, design optimized teaching system and teaching information (including determining the arrangement order of teaching content and corresponding knowledge points, selecting teaching media, designing the presentation content and mode of teaching information and feedback information, and considering human-computer interaction, etc.). ).
The development of learning process and learning resources includes the application of audio-visual technology and electronic publishing technology in education and teaching, the development of computer-aided teaching technology (Cai He) and the integration and application of various technologies in education and teaching.
Regarding the learning process and the use of learning resources, we should emphasize the use and dissemination of emerging technologies (including new media and all kinds of latest information technology means), and try our best to institutionalize and legalize them to ensure the continuous innovation of educational technology means.
The management of learning process and learning resources includes the management of teaching system, educational information, educational resources and educational research plans and projects.
Regarding the evaluation of learning process and learning resources, we should not only pay attention to the summative evaluation of education and teaching system, but also pay attention to the formative evaluation as the main means of quality control. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the problems existing in the process of education and teaching in time, and make quantitative measurement and comparison with reference to the requirements (standards) of the Code.
2. Comparison of the old and new definitions of "77" educational technology
Before the new definition of educational technology was confirmed and published in 1994, AECT officially published the definition of educational technology in 1977. The definition is as follows: "Educational technology is a complex and comprehensive process, which includes all kinds of people, methods, ideas, equipment and organizations, and these people, methods, ideas, equipment and institutions are all analyzing human learning.
For a long time, this definition has been regarded as the most authoritative generalization of educational technology, and no one has ever questioned it. Until the end of 1980s, some people in American educational technology circles pointed out that this definition was outdated and needed to be revised. A careful analysis of the old definition of 1977 shows that it has several obvious differences from the new definition of 1994:
(1) The old definition holds that educational technology is just a "process", which includes various factors related to human learning (such as people and equipment, ideas and methods, etc.). ); The new definition holds that educational technology is a "theory and practice" that comprehensively studies learning process and learning resources from five aspects: design, development, utilization, management and evaluation.
(2) The "process" mentioned in the old definition refers to the process in which people apply advanced technical equipment and methods to education and teaching and optimize them. What is emphasized here is the application process of advanced technical means and methods. In other words, the old definition only regards educational technology as the application of advanced technical means and methods, but does not regard it as an independent discipline with its own theoretical system; The new definition regards educational technology as the theoretical basis to guide the design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of various practical activities of learning process and learning resources, that is, educational technology has formed a set of theoretical basis and methodology system to guide various practical activities to optimize learning process, so it is an independent discipline.
(3) The old definition holds that educational technology is the process of applying advanced technical means and methods to education, and its focus is only on practical application; The new definition holds that educational technology is the theory and practice to study how to optimize the learning process, so its focus is on practical application and theoretical research.
(4) The old definition holds that educational technology is a process involving various factors related to human learning. The concept of "human learning" mentioned here is general and abstract, which can neither provide a clear guiding ideology for teaching design nor point out the direction for the development of educational technology. The new definition holds that educational technology is about the theory and practice of designing, developing and applying educational technology ... learning process and learning resources, and the concept of "learning process and learning resources" is very clear and specific here. Learning process is a cognitive process for learners to learn new knowledge and master new skills. Learning resources are the environment and conditions used in the learning process. Can be divided into human resources and non-human resources. Human resources include teachers, counselors and study groups; Non-human learning resources include teaching media and teaching environment. All teaching media are materialized hard devices, and the teaching environment includes not only hard devices (such as classrooms and experiments), but also teaching modes (such as personalized teaching mode or cooperative teaching mode) embodied by some interaction between teachers and students. In the new definition, it is of great guiding significance to replace the general abstract concepts of human learning with more specific concepts of learning process and learning resources. It shows that teaching design should not only consider students' learning process, that is, cognitive process; At the same time, we should also consider learning resources. In order to optimize the teaching process and obtain the best learning effect, in the design of learning resources, we should not only pay attention to the selection and design of teaching media, but also pay attention to the design of teaching mode. The teaching design that ignores the teaching mode is incomplete and undesirable, and it does not meet the requirements of modern educational technology. This not only provides a comprehensive and correct guiding ideology for teaching design, but also points out the direction for the in-depth development of educational technology.
From the comparison of the above four aspects, we can see that compared with the old definition of 77', the new definition of 94' is not only more concise and clear in expression, but also more able to grasp the key and essence of the problem, so it is more comprehensive and profound. This shows that people's understanding of educational technology has gradually improved from superficial to internal, from perceptual to rational, and educational technology itself has gradually developed from general applied technology into an independent discipline with its own theoretical system and research methods. This situation reflects the objective needs of the information society and the historical necessity of the development of educational technology.
3. Enlightenment from the new definition of' 94' educational technology.
Based on the present situation of the development of audio-visual education and educational technology in China, studying the new definition of "94" educational technology can get many beneficial inspirations and lessons, which is of great significance to promote the further development of audio-visual education and educational technology in China.
The new definition of (1) 94' examines the nature and research content of educational technology from two aspects: learning process and learning resources. As mentioned above, the learning process is a cognitive process for learners to learn new knowledge and skills, so it mainly involves "people" (learners); Learning resources are the environment and conditions to be used in the learning process, so they mainly involve "things". For many years, influenced by the old definition of "July 7th", some audio-visual workers in our country often only care about things but not people. They only care about the configuration of audio-visual teaching equipment in the school, and don't care about the learning process of students. They believe that the teaching reform and students' learning in schools are the business of principals and teachers, and have nothing to do with audio-visual workers. Educational leaders in a few places hold similar views, which makes the audio-visual education halls in some places equal to the supply stations of instruments and equipment, and fails to play an active role in the teaching reform. To learn the new definition of' 94' educational technology, we must first correctly understand the essence and function of educational technology from two aspects: learning process and learning resources. Combined with the reality of our country, we should especially emphasize the learning process. In this way, the vast number of audio-visual educators can be liberated from the shackles of traditional thinking that they only care about things and don't care about people, boldly devote themselves to school teaching reform, fully care about students' learning process, and strive to help teachers in various subjects make good use of audio-visual education means. In this way, our audio-visual educators will be more and more extensive and play an increasingly important role in schools at all levels.
(2) As far as the design of learning resources (mainly involving "things") is concerned, because human learning resources (such as teachers and counselors) are determined in advance and cannot be selected, the design of learning resources generally refers to non-human learning resources, that is, the design of teaching media and teaching environment. For many years, influenced by the old definition of "July 7th" educational technology, China's audio-visual education circles often only pay attention to the selection and design of teaching media, while ignoring the design of teaching environment. Many comrades mistakenly think that "audio-visual education" or "educational technology" only studies "the theory and application of media", while a few comrades simply think that "audio-visual education" is "the application of media". What's more, their understanding of the media is more narrow. By the late 1980s, they still thought that the media was (or mainly) "audio-visual media", and excluded new media such as computers from audio-visual education, which led to a period. Fortunately, in recent years, great changes have taken place in this understanding from leaders to the masses, thus making the cause of audio-visual education in China gradually embark on a healthier development track.
(3) As far as the design of teaching environment is concerned, due to the limitation of economic conditions, it is often difficult to choose an environment related to hard equipment (such as classrooms and laboratories), so the design of teaching environment generally refers to the design of teaching mode related to the interaction between teachers and students or students. For many years, influenced by the old definition of' 77' educational technology, many people in the field of audio-visual education and even the whole education in China have one-sided or even wrong understanding of the design of teaching environment, thinking that the design of teaching environment is only to build a teaching building and a computer room, and never consider the design of teaching mode. This has caused a very strange phenomenon: on the one hand, due to the shortage of education funds, it is very difficult to build computer rooms and purchase equipment; On the other hand, due to the lack of attention to the design of learning process and teaching mode, many computer rooms and equipment that cost a lot of investment and money are overstocked for a long time, which has little or no effect on teaching except for people to visit and show off. Regrettably, this kind of understanding is quite deeply rooted in many grassroots leaders; Only pay attention to hardware investment, not to software construction; Buy equipment regardless of the actual conditions and needs, blindly compare, blindly pursue high-grade. Sadly, this phenomenon has not been corrected so far, and it is getting worse. In fact, from the design requirements of teaching environment, the focus should be on the design of teaching mode, rather than the construction of hardware equipment. Of course, it is necessary to improve the conditions of hard equipment, but the equipment is dead, while the interactive process in the teaching mode and the cognitive process of students learning new knowledge are alive. Paying attention to the design and development of teaching mode and learning process can maximize the benefits and achieve the best learning effect through human subjective initiative under certain hard equipment conditions. This is especially true for our relatively poor developing countries. \par In a word, for the audio-visual educators in China, we should not only pay attention to the research on the theory and application of media, but also pay attention to the study of students' learning process and the teaching mode closely related to the learning process, which is the most important enlightenment we get from learning the new definition of' 94' educational technology.
Second, the development trend of contemporary educational technology
In the late 1980s, the Scientific Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) thought that the increasing popularity of microcomputers had a far-reaching impact on the research content and development direction of educational technology, so it planned to conduct a comprehensive investigation and research in this field, and thus set up the Special Research Project on Advanced Educational Technology (AET). The AET project was supported and funded by the NATO Scientific Committee and implemented in 1988. The project lasted for 6 years and has organized as many as 50 high-level seminars and symposiums. Hundreds of first-class educational technology experts from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries participated in these meetings for many times, and conducted serious and in-depth discussions on the development trend of educational technology, major frontier topics and the impact of these new developments on education and teaching, and reached * * * understandings on many issues.
By analyzing the research conclusions of the AET project of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and synthesizing the main viewpoints of international academic conferences on educational technology in recent years (such as the AECT annual meeting in the United States and the seminar of educational technology experts in the Asia-Pacific region organized by UNESCO), we can see that the development of educational technology today has the following trends:
1. Establish a working network.
(1) The Origin and Development of Internet
The most obvious sign of educational technology networking is the rapid development of Internet applications. The Internet is actually a collection of networks all over the world. Its predecessor is ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) network developed by the US Department of Defense. This network provided reliable communication for the military in the 1960s and 1970s, when the network only included thousands of computers. Later, researchers and scientists in non-military systems demanded more and more network services. In order to meet this demand, the National Science Foundation (NSF) implemented a more powerful new backbone network plan in 1986, called NSFNET. At the same time, a more open policy should be adopted, so that researchers in universities and enterprises with non-military systems can access the network.
In the late 1980s, the US Congress was worried that supercomputers and network technologies were lagging behind in the fierce international competition, so it passed the "High Performance Computing Act", which was proposed by Senator Albert.Gore at that time. Its purpose was to improve the performance of the original NSFNET and greatly expand its application scope, so that people, including primary and secondary school teachers, rural doctors and librarians, could access the Internet. This new high-speed backbone network experiment project is called NREN (National Research and Education Network), which is the main backbone and foundation of the Internet at present.
1993, in order to solve the problem of insufficient funds, the National Science Foundation of the United States allowed companies such as IBM and AT&; Companies such as T and Sprint assume the responsibility of network management and gradually privatize the network. Since then, these companies have announced plans to invest heavily in national information infrastructure (for example, Sprint and its partners promised to invest $20 billion in this field in the next decade).
As far as the transmission rate is concerned, the Internet has increased from 56Kbps (bits per second) in the early ARPA era to 45Mbps based on NSFNET in 1992 (an increase of nearly 1000 times), which is a huge leap. In fact, this network transmission rate is equivalent to 500 pages of text per second, or two sets of encyclopedias per minute. Next, the Internet based on NREN will increase the transmission rate by 1000 times, that is, it will reach tens of Gbps (tens of billions of bits per second). This transmission rate is extremely amazing, because it is equivalent to transmitting the information contained in all books in the Library of Congress in one minute. This is the future "information superhighway" widely publicized by mass media.
According to the latest report, there are 4 million computers connected to the Internet, and the number of users on the Internet has reached more than 30 million, and the number of users has increased at a rate of 65,438+00% every month. Experts believe that this growth momentum is expected to continue until the beginning of the next century, until all people who use computers become online users.
The great revolution of long-distance, broadband and wide-area communication network technology embodied by the Internet will certainly have a far-reaching impact on the future higher education, which will not only be reflected in the reform of teaching means and methods, but also cause fundamental changes in teaching mode and education system.
(2) Education system and teaching mode based on Internet network environment.
1in June, 1994, Dr. A.W.Bates, R&D Planning Center of the Open University of Canada, made a special report for the international conference on "Multimedia and Hypermedia in Education", put forward a concrete idea of the education system and teaching mode based on the future Internet network environment, and vividly described the teaching process under this education system and teaching mode through examples. In Bates' case, the learner is Miss Susan, who is an artist who makes animation for TV stations. She is designing some kind of animation. In order to achieve the best visual effect, she needs to study and consult, hoping to master the latest technology of animation through this study. According to her initial understanding, with the help of her colleagues, she found the name of a famous expert in this field in China (assuming it was Wiener), but it was far away, so Susan called Wiener through the multimedia education network and asked him about it. Wiener pulls out the software about the same topic from his own file and discusses it with Susan online (via videophone, this kind of discussion online is like face-to-face discussion). Susan asked Weiner a few questions. Under Weiner's guidance, she did some homework to make animation with new technology. Then Susan copied the software with new technical features from Wiener's file. Of course, Susan and Weiner should have registered in this education network in advance. In this way, when Susan copies the software, the copyright fee for copying the software and the fee for consulting Weiner every minute will be automatically displayed on Susan's workstation. In the teaching process just now, Weiner may also ask Susan for advice or some questions or information he cares about. If this happens, Susan's status will change from a student to a teacher, and Weiner will be charged in turn. When Susan copied the required software, she not only got the new technology, but also could ask Weiner questions related to the software at any time. Through the above examples, we can see a brand-new education system and teaching mode. This kind of education system is not limited by time, space and region, and can be extended to every corner of the whole society and even the whole world through computer networks. This is a truly open university. Under this educational system, everyone is both a student and a teacher, not only in different teaching processes, but also in the same teaching process, which is the real equality between teachers and students; Under this educational system, work and study are completely integrated, and the boundary between going to work and studying after work is broken. Everyone can study, work or play freely through the Internet anytime and anywhere (when you feel tired from work or study, you can call up any movie you like from the movie database or any symphony you like from the music database at any time to enjoy), which is the real freedom of personality; Under this educational system, everyone, rich or poor, can get the guidance of first-class teachers in every subject, consult the most authoritative experts in the world "face to face", borrow books from the most famous libraries in the world (such as the Library of Congress in the United States or the Library of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom), even copy them, and get the latest information and materials in any corner of the world. Because it is a multimedia education network based on the information superhighway, all these can be done in an instant. The teachers, experts, materials and information you need are far away, but they are close at hand. Every citizen in the world, regardless of his family background, status and wealth, can enjoy this kind of top-quality education, which is the real education for all.
In the above-mentioned educational network environment, we can carry out personalized teaching, collaborative teaching (that is, collective discussion or debate), and combine personalized and collaborative teaching, which is a brand-new network teaching mode. This teaching mode is completely based on personal needs. Whether it is teaching content, teaching time, teaching methods or even teachers, we can choose according to learners' own wishes or needs. Learners can study at home or in the office (through workstations) or on the road (through portable multifunction computers).
Herbert Landau, president of new york University, predicted in 1990 that the traditional universities that spent four years on campus would die out. Will this prophecy come true? When will it be realized? It's not easy to judge now. However, in the 2 1 century, it is certain that this truly open university based on the Internet, which is not limited by time and space, will become more and more common.
(3) Educational network plans in Australia and Japan.
Because the prospect of the Internet is so broad, countries all over the world attach great importance to the application of the Internet. Internet has not only penetrated into all fields of social life, but also started to enter primary and secondary schools and families.
For example, the Australian National Public Resources Administration has decided to establish the "Australian Education Network" in April 1995, and plans to open it in early 1996 to join the international network through the Internet. The education network includes not only all institutions of higher learning, but also all primary and secondary schools in Australia. Its main objectives are four:
① Encourage students and teachers of all kinds of schools (including primary schools, junior high schools, senior high schools, technical schools and universities) to join and use the Internet; ;
(2) Encourage the development of various educational services through the Internet (including information inquiry and retrieval, information discovery, assisted learning, single-subject professional training, systematic learning and degree awarding, etc.). );
(3) Providing nationwide information exchange and cooperation service centers for local education and training departments through the network;
④ Stimulate more information technology development opportunities.
Through the cooperation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Japanese government began to implement the experimental research project "100" which has great influence in the field of basic education this year. * * * There are11primary and secondary schools (including primary schools, junior high schools, senior high schools and technical secondary schools) participating in the experiment in Japan, and all experimental schools are required to use the online system to join the Internet. The goal of this project is to explore a brand-new teaching mode outside the framework of traditional education system and teaching methods, and make more ideal interactive learning possible through the network. The basic starting point of their experiment is that they are convinced that allowing students to have extensive information exchange throughout Japan and even around the world will greatly enhance their ability to acquire, analyze and process information, thus cultivating brand-new talents with high creativity who can adapt to the fierce international competition in the 2/kloc-0 century. We believe that this decision of the Japanese government is far-sighted. After Japan's defeat, the rapid economic revitalization is inseparable from the Japanese government's consistent emphasis on education, especially basic education. In fact, at present, it is only a year or two for Japanese universities to use the Internet, but professors have joined the Internet more generally, and ordinary college students have not used it yet. However, under this initial condition, it is admirable and surprising that the Japanese government dares to carry out this considerable scale experiment in 100 primary and secondary schools. But even more shocking is yet to come. Let's take a look at their experiments in this project! This project is not only to make students understand and learn to use the Internet like other countries, but also to do a series of scientific research and experiments. At present, there are three experiments to be done in the initial stage:
① Study on pumpkin growth mode: This project requires all experimental schools in China to participate in pumpkin planting at the same time, and requires students to carefully observe the growth and morphology of local pumpkin seeds, and compare the observation results of experimental schools in other regions at any time through the Internet to understand the pumpkin growth beyond the normal climate and geographical conditions, and encourage students to find ways to solve such problems, thus greatly expanding students' horizons, breaking the limitations of books and providing a broad world for students to cultivate divergent thinking and creativity.
② Acid rain research: This project enables students to understand the seriousness of environmental pollution from an early age and cultivate the consciousness of loving and protecting the natural environment. Students who participate in experimental research should understand the causes and harm of acid rain under the guidance of teachers and find solutions. Through the internet, students can get the latest information about acid rain research at home and abroad, so that students can directly enter the forefront of scientific research from middle school, get rid of the mystery of scientific research and cultivate innovative consciousness.
③ Hot news forum: The computer network provides all students in the experimental school (from primary school to junior high school to senior high school) with the latest news reports at home and abroad, and at the same time provides an open forum for students to exchange views and make comments. The purpose is to cultivate students' keen ability to observe and analyze problems and strict logical thinking expression ability.
From the tendency of Japanese textbooks to repeatedly deny aggression and whitewash militarism, and then to see their unshakable determination and aggressive momentum in cultivating the ability and quality of the younger generation, what should we think? ! Can we not be shocked and worried? Can we think about it: how can we make our next generation adapt to the fierce international competition in 2 1 century? Comrades, we can't let our next generation lag behind the Japanese, let alone be defeated by the Japanese.